Play as the ultimate skill in a post-AI world

So this is the first post that I’ve written in a few days, and the reason for that is very simple. I didn’t write anything, in part because I was sick and in part because I didn’t necessarily feel the inspiration to do so.

I have an agreement with myself. The agreement is that things that I do for fun, I want to keep fun. And I found that once you, and I’m not the first one to realize this, once you make something fun mandatory or more like a job, it’s a really easy way to make it not fun.

As an adult, it’s very hard to give yourself the space to do things just for fun. But I found that doing things for fun is one of the best ways to stay creative, to explore new things, to explore something that you’ve never done before, whether that’s learning a new skill, doing something artistic or creative or something else entirely.

Play as an adult is difficult. There are so many expectations from society, other people in our professional environments, that we’re always busy improving ourselves / leveling up. Having pressure to achieve or perform is not conducive to creativity. Learning something new is tiring and requires you to overcome constant hurdles. If the subtext of your learning is that ultimately this doesn’t provide you with additional skills that help you in your professional lives, it’s much harder to do so.

However, if you give yourself time and space to just play, to enjoy something, whether that is learning a new skill or doing something you’ve never done before without the burden of you becoming a better professional, i.e. by having zero pressure projects, you can explore new parts of yourself and enjoy things for what they are.

We are quickly approaching a time where being a professional, especially if you’re working in an environment of white-collar workers, is less about having a particular degree and more about being creative with the tools at hand. Those tools, of course, being AI. I would argue that play, exploration and ultimately curiosity are some of the most important new skills to attain.